Show Review: The Mae Shi @ The Velvet Lounge (7-22-08)

I’d discovered The Mae Shi, a band out of that Echo Park/Silver Lake area of LA, via Web in Front, who had nothing but good things to say about their live show. So after seeing The Ting Tings show on Tuesday, we skipped around the corner to the Velvet Lounge thinking we had just enough time to get a drink or two and head upstairs for the band’s 11:30 pm on-time.

Ah the best laid plans…The Mae Shi didn’t go on until closer to 12:30 am. And though I was slated for a veeeerrry early in-time because of Hurricane Dolly at the secret government job the next morning, I felt I needed to hang in for a little while at least and see some of what they were all about. I’d heard some of their stuff via their Myspace page and it had my interest.

I hung in for maybe four songs and what I saw...hell, I don’t even know what it was I saw. The band started the show mixed within the audience. All the members approached the stage singing, picked up their instruments, and began a punk-rock assault on the ears that bordered early Megadeath volume; definitely one for the record books. There was much pogoing by the crowd (to where you could physically feel the floor shaking), a tarp-like canopy unrolled over top of the audience at one part of the set (?), and the transformation of singer/guitarist Jonathan Grey from the quiet, mild-mannered person I’d been talking to prior to the show, to a shrieking, raging, close-to-convulsing madman.



Was it all a bit nuts? Yes. Was it anything like what I heard on Myspace? Nope. Was it a whole lot of fun? Hell yes. Just be sure you bring ear plugs.

A more comprehensive review of the DC show is here and pictures from their NYC can be seen here.

(The Mae Shi are currently on tour shaking all the trees loose around Europe).